Runoff and Stream Water Chemistry Responses to Simulated Emerald Ash Borer Invasion in Black Ash Wetlands in Northern Michigan

Joseph Shannon1, Kathryn Hofmeister1, Matthew Van Grinsven1, 2, Randall Kolka3, Fengjing Liu1

1 College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University; 2 Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geographical Sciences, Northern Michigan University; 3 US Forest Service, Northern Research Station

Major Finding

Stream water dissolved organic carbon concentrations increased following disturbance. Changes were driven by increased wetland water levels and a more continuous surface water – stream water connection.

Basic Sections

Introduction

Black ash is a dominant canopy species in northern forested wetlands that is threatened by Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), which is continuing to spread into areas where black ash is prominent and loss of ash has been shown to affect wetland water levels. No previous work has examined water quality changes following simulation or how those changes are telegraphed downstream.

Methods

A paired watershed approach has been implemented on the Ottawa National Forest in western Michigan (Control: 1.1 ha, 503 m a.s.l.; Treatment: 0.8 ha, 476 m a.s.l.). Streamflow monitored in a 6” Parshall flume with a Solinst Levellogger Edge and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total dissolved nitrogen (not shown) were collected by grab and automated sampling and processed on a Shimadzu Total Organic Analyzer. After 2 years of calibration all ash ≥ 1” dbh were cut and left on site in one watershed in March 2015.
Changes in wetland water levels (Figure 1) were tested using Kruskall-Wallis Rank Sum tests. Hydrograph separation (Figure 2) was performed using three approaches to allow for sepearate measures of baseflow and quickflow (Lyne & Hollick, 1979; Chapman & Maxwell, 1996; and Eckhardt, 2005). Pre-treatment models for stream water DOC concentration between sites (Figure 3), and for stream water DOC concentration by wetland water source (Figure 4 & Table 1) were fit using quantile regression models with \(\tau = 0.5\). Quantile regression models were to avoid undue outlier influence on model fit and to account for unmodeled environmental drivers (Cade & Noon, 2003).

Summary Results

During the post-treatment period increased wetland water levels in the treatment watershed increased relative to pre-treatment conditions. During the same period the percent of water yield as baseflow increased relative to the control watershed. Increased wetland water levels likely led to a more continuous surface water – stream water connection, resulting in higher baseflow. This is supported by the wetland surface water model at the treatment site, which was the best performing post-treatment predictor of stream DOC. Over that same period in the Control watershed baseflow decreased and wetland soil water was the best predictor of stream water DOC.

Future Work

Future work will incorporate seasonality as these systems are heavily influenced by snowfall, analyze anion (Cl-, SO42-) concentrations and flourescence excitation emission matrices to improve source water separation and understand biogeochemical processing.

Contact

This poster was generated using the posterdown R package. Code to generate the poster can be found on Github
Github: github.com/jpshanno/agu_2019
Email:
Twitter: @jpshanno

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